Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

Teenage vampire slayer Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) juggles her social life with staking the undead, dating sensitive hunk Owen (Christopher Wiehl) whilst trying to find the Anointed One, who has been prophesied to rise up and release head bloodsucker The Master (Mark Metcalf). Needless to say, holding down a relationship while dealing with vampires doesn't prove all that easy.

Another Buffy episode that doesn't quite do it for me: whenever the Master and his vampiric acolytes are the central villains of the piece, I tend to switch off (mentally, not literally). Lucky for me, then, that—despite the show being called Buffy The Vampire Slayer—vampires are often the least of her worries, with far more exotic demons and creatures lurking in the shadows waiting to bring death and chaos to Sunnydale. Roll on the next episode...

A step uu from the previous episodes but just a little, involving the master was the saving grace and stops it from being a filler episode

Is it just me or does this Owen guy look like he could be Buffy's dad? Seriously doesn't he look about 35 years old?

It's a fun episode- definitely not a masterpiece but there are still plenty of good lines and jokes. I always enjoy seeing Xander desperately hanging in the periphery!

I really loved the final reveal at the end! I hope the little kid thing gets explored in subsequent episodes.

Too many Snappy quirky comebacks get old really fast. Buffy not acting like a teenager but a 12-year-old that's boy crazy. Ick, just ick Terrible writing terrible story thank God the rest of the episodes are better.

Overall I enjoyed this episode as it tied into the story arc for season 1. On paper the anointed one (annoying one) sounded cool but was ultimately a bit of a let down, although I enjoyed the twist reveal/ misdirection. Seeing the Master was a treat as always and I liked how this episode begins to lay the ground work for the S1 finale.

I found it odd Buffy would pine for someone like Owen. I found him dull, pretentious and condescending at times. Buffys attempts to win Owen over were comical though and made for some moments. I have to also give props to Owen for his complete dismissal of Cordelia, but that's all he gets. His character shift at the end of the episode was also quite jarring.

Xander also continues to be Xander as his immature reaction to Buffy and Owen is as eye roll inducing as ever. His language towards Owen and Buffy in general is pretty horrendous and that's before we get too him doing his peeping tom act....

Overall this was a fun episode with a great red herring flung into mix which at the time made the ending more impactful than it would actually go onto be with the "annoying one"